Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees’ reigning American League MVP, picked up where he left off last year, hitting a home run on his first swing of the season and adding another during the Yankees’ opening series win over the San Francisco Giants.
Big-money MLB free agent shortstops Trea Turner (1.198 OPS), Xander Bogaerts (two homers, 1.471 OPS) and Dansby Swanson (1.282 OPS) all made big first impressions with their clubs.
And did you see what the Chicago White Sox’ Dylan Cease did in his Opening Day start against the defending-champ Houston Astros (10 strikeouts, no walks, 18 straight retired after a leadoff hit in the first, pitched into the seventh)?
So much good, as always, with a new baseball season underway.
But the best? The very best?
Through the first weekend of the season, the pace has been more brisk than the weather, more entertaining than a ballpark village.
A full half-hour has been shaved off elapsed times of MLB games through Sunday compared to the first four days of last season, thanks to the first-year pitch clock.
With rare exceptions, the pace created by the 15- and 20-second limits between pitches has gained not only widespread approval but coast-to-coast raves.
“I love the new rules. I like the pace,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “I don’t like wasting time.”
So far, MLB games are coming in at an average of about 2 1/2 hours, with the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Guardians playing one in 2 hours, 4 minutes — the Guardians’ quickest game in 12 years.
So how entertaining will this prove to be over the season? Will this financially growing, $11 billion-a-year industry see a reversal of its attendance losses over the past decade?
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred talked about that hope with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman on their New York Post baseball podcast as the season opened: “What we have done in terms of the rules changes was exclusively driven by fan research about what they wanted to see,” Manfred said. “So I am optimistic that that’s going to play out on the attendance side.
“I think that would be an important turning point for our game.”
So if that’s the best of the first weekend of 2023 baseball, we would be remiss not to mention the bad and ugly.
The Bad
Besides the obvious and expected 0-3 starts by the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals?
The only thing worse was the collective performance of the Baltimore Orioles’ starting pitching and fielding during an opening series against the pedestrian Boston Red Sox, during which the O’s lost two of three despite scoring at least five runs in every game and averaging 7.7 per game.
Worse yet, this team with some of the best young talent in the game, coming off a surprise 83-win season, did little over the winter to address what it knew was a starting pitching deficit.
And then Kyle Gibson (four runs), Dean Kremer (five) and Cole Irvin (six) gave up successively earned runs each of the first three days of the season for total of 15 in 12 innings (11.25 ERA). Not helping the cause: at least one error per game and five total in the series.
“You gotta pitch and play defense. We didn’t have our best series on the mound or defensively,” O’s manager Brandon Hyde said. “Those are two things we gotta do better to win series in this league.”
Hard to imagine they’ll do much worse.
The Ugly
Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves. Justin Verlander of the New York Mets. Robbie Ray of the Seattle Mariners.
All went on the injured list either before first pitch (Verlander) or after abbreviated opening starts for hamstring, strain of muscle near arm pit and flexor strain, respectively. None looks to be an especially short-term injury, though Verlander has continued to throw as he tries to return to game shape.
Add them to Opening Day IL moves for spring training injuries to the New York Yankees’ Carlos Rodon (forearm strain) and San Diego Padres’ Joe Musgrove (broken toe), and that’s a five-man rotation that when healthy might be as good as any somebody might put together with the rest of the pitchers in baseball.
Combined those five pitchers have 14 All-Star selections, four Cy Youngs, four World Series rings, three ERA titles, three Gold Gloves and an MVP award.
Signing of things to come for Chicago Cubs?
It wasn’t close to megabucks or remotely close to long term, but the three-year extension the Chicago Cubs got done with second baseman Nico Hoerner might very quietly have signaled the start of a new way of doing business — maybe even a new set of business outcomes when it comes to extension talks with players Cubs president Jed Hoyer considers part of his “next great Cubs team.” Fans can hope.
The three-year, $35 million deal buys out only one year of free agency, a significant club concession that allows Hoerner to become a free agent while still in his 20s.
Big deal? If it is, it’s because of what it means in the context of the last great Cubs team — when the club failed to get any extensions done with homegrown All-Stars Kris Bryant, Javy Báez and Willson Contreras.
The last Cubs homegrown player to sign an extension: David Bote (5 years, $15 million) before the 2019 season. He’s at Triple-A Iowa and no longer on the 40-man roster.
“I don’t think we put any additional pressure on it,” Hoyer said of the urgency to get something done with either of the two players he negotiated with this spring (also Ian Happ). “Of course, there’s a level of frustration that you think about when I look back on the deals we didn’t get done. You look back on — not so much how much money we offered — because that part I feel really good about. But you think about: When did we start the negotiations? How did we conduct it? You try to be as introspective as possible.”
Don’t think the team’s recent history with its 2016 World Series core was lost on Hoerner. When talking about his new deal, he mentioned that he keeps in his locker a pair of batting gloves that belonged to the last occupant of that locker: former Cubs star Anthony Rizzo. “A reminder of what was there before,” he said.
Hoyer didn’t rule out yet reaching agreement with Happ, but it looks more likely at this point that the former No. 9 overall draft pick and 2022 All-Star will be a trade candidate again in July.
This and that from around MLB
That part about the best happenings in MLB in the early going. Check that. It’s hard to top this one: White Sox closer Liam Hendriks announced in a recorded video-board message before Monday’s home opener for the Sox that he’s starting his final round of chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “So see you guys on the South Side soon.” Notably last week, the Sox did not put Hendriks on the 60-day IL, opting instead for the 15-day, “for a reason,” GM Rick Hahn said. …
Anthony Rendon of the Los Angeles Angels plans to appeal his five-game MLB suspension, according to multiple reports, for an altercation with a fan in Oakland on his way off the field after the season opener. “I let my emotions get the best of me,” he said (via The Athletic’s Sam Blum), adding he and the fan talked on the phone afterward and apologized to each other. …
The Atlanta Braves announced plans on Sept. 9 to retire the No. 25 of former star centerfielder Andruw Jones, who hit 434 home runs and won 10 Gold Gloves during a 17-year career. He’s the 11th player in franchise history to have his number retired. Will it do anything to raise his profile for voters as he heads into a seventh year on the Hall of Fame ballot? Jones has made significant and successive jumps the last three years, earning 33.9%, 41.4% and 58.1% support. A player must be selected on 75% of ballots to gain induction. …
You want high-speed entertainment and baseball all rolled into one? Check out the early stolen base results in the first few games with bigger bases and pickoff limits for pitchers. 70 steals in 84 attempts (83.3%), compared to 29-for-43 (67.4%) through the same number of days last year. That included 21-for-23 in 15 games on Opening Day. Jorge Mateo had four to lead the majors through the first weekend, and O’s teammate Cedric Mullins was tied for second with three. Buckle up. …
It’s only April, but we already have an early favorite for MLB teammate of the year: the Yankees’ Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo, who signed a new two-year, $40 million deal with the club over the winter, bought 52 bottles of fine Italian wine — two for each teammate, in most cases with their names embossed in gold. Rizzo decided on the gifts while visiting the winery in Chianti, Italy, with family in January, but he was inspired by teammates Jon Lester and Jason Heyward when they all were with the Cubs. “Jon Lester would always get us gifts. Heyward would get us gifts on Opening Day,” Rizzo said. “Opening Day’s a special day. … So just a little gift to start what is hoped for the championship season.”
Gordon Wittenmyer covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. You can follow him on Twitter at @GDubCub.